Cocos Islands

The Cocos (Keeling) Islands is a small archipelago in the Indian Ocean, located halfway between Sri Lanka and Australia. The archipelago consists of 27 coral islands, with only West Island (the capital) and Home Island being inhabited. The majority of the population of around 600 people consisted of Sunni Malays, the descendants of the original Malay explorers of the islands. The islands were annexed by the United Kingdom in 1857, and they were officially administered from Ceylon or Singapore in the following century. In 1955, the islands were transferred to Australia.